A sales guy called a purchase guy to check if he had received the urgent sms about an urgent eMail sent containing the scanned attachment of an urgent fax copy of the final bid that had been couriered urgently, just a while ago. The purchase guy did not answer the phone or the sms or the eMail or the fax. Two days later the very anxious sales guy called up the purchase guy to follow-up if the courier was received and read. The purchase guy answered the phone and informed him that the order was already placed on one of his competitors who had been there in person two days ago for a cup of coffee, negotiated win-win terms, personally handed over the final quote and then followed it up with thank you over fax, eMail, sms and phone. In his internal order loss report, the sales guy mentioned the reason of as not being there in person to drink coffee. His boss reprimanded him that hence forth he should always be there in person to have coffee with the purchase guy.
Six months later, while pursuing another sales opportunity the same sales guy made sure he was there in person to meet the purchase guy to negotiate the win-win over a cup of coffee. He waited for hours to be called in for the cup of coffee until it was pretty late in the evening. Soon the purchase guy walked out of his room, all packed up to go home. Seeing the sales guy he smiled questioningly and asked his assistant to provide some instant coffee to the sales guy and left for the day. After a sip or two of instant coffee, the sales guy meekly asked about when he could have coffee with his boss to close the deal. The assistant informed the sales guy that the order had already placed with the competition who had negotiated hard over phone, sms, eMail and fax.The sales guy was dumbstruck! "Was no longer essential to have a cup of coffee in person to close the deals?" The assistant calmly replied - it's not the coffee, but your brewing that makes the difference!
